From This Moment
by wild-angel82
Summary: My version of how the party in My Noon, My Midnight should have gone. Mostly C&A.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own those characters. I love them with my whole heart though!

Spoilers: Through My Noon, My Midnight.

**Part 1**

"So, you think we'v got everything? Tess asked as she and Claire were on their way back from town bringing supplies for the party.

"I believe so." was Claire's reply.

"Pineapple juice for the punch?" Tess started making ure that they indeed had everything.

"Yep."

"Champagne per Jodi's request?"

"We've got that also." Claire answered. "And stop stressing so much."

"I'm sorry, but I just want everything to be perfect for the party tonight.""I know." Claire looked at her sister affectionately. "And it will be. We have lots of reasons to celebrate and it will be a great party."

"Claire, I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that this is not cancer." Tess suddenly said with a more serious expression on her face.

"Hey." Claire cut her off. "I don't wanna hear about cancer and anything of that sort anymore, OK?" she looked at Tess and smiled. "Let's forget about it and focus on happy things, shall we?"

"Your wish is my command." Tess saluted with a laugh.

"And I'm surprisded that I'm the one who has to give you advice like that. You're the one who always keeps telling everyone to focus on positive things."

"You're right." Tess stated. "I'm the positive one. I don't know what's gotten into me. Of course we have to focus on positive things. There are so many of them in our lives right now."

"Oh yeah." Claire said happily as she looked over at her beautiful baby girl in the backseat. "She's perfect, isn't she?" she said proudly.

"Yes she is." Tess agreed. "And so is the guy who is waiting for you back home."

"I know." Claire replied with a huge grin on her face. "Hey, has he always been this perfect or was I just blind?"

"I think you were blind." Tess laughed. "It's beyond me how it took you 15 years to figure out you were so much in love."

"Sometimes those things take time, you know." Claire sighed. "But it was so worth it."

"I bet it was."

"I wouldn't change what Alex, BOM and I have now for anything. I'm the happiest woman alive. And BOM is so lucky to have dad like Alex. He's so great with her my heart just screams out of happiness when I see them together."

"Yeah." Tess smiled. "He loves Charlotte as though she was his own. And I know he's gonna be this great when you two have kids."

"What?" Claire looked at her sister a little bit shocked.

"Oh come on, like that thought never crossed your mind!" Tess insisted.

"Honestly, it did. Alex wants to have kids and I couldn't be happier about it. I mean not right now, but I do hope it's in the stars for us."

"Of course it is silly! You're gonna be so happy together." Tess said what everyone seems to know as well. There were no people more in love and happier than old mates Claire McLeod and Alex Ryan.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

"So tonight's the night, huh?" Nick looked at his brother with so much pride.

"Yeah." Alex grinned.

"I still can't believe that you're finally settling down. I thought it would never happen."

"Well, I just needed to find the perfect woman." Alex smiled. "Now that I found her and know that I wanna spend the rest of my life with her, I don't think there is any reason why this should wait. I mean we're already a family with Charlotte, so why not make it official?"

"Look at you all smitten and talking about family." Nick patted his brother on the shoulder. "But you do know that you can't sleep with other women when you''re married, right?"

"Oh so very funny!" Alex laughed.

"So where is the ring?"

"It's on Claire's bed. I figured she won't go in there until after the party and when she does, I can finally pop the question."

"Just don't chicken out." Nick continued to tease him.

"Never!" Alex said firmly and again whispered to himself. "Never."

"Speak of the devil." Nick smiled and his sight shifted towards Claire's ute pulling up. A while later Claire and Tess got out and Nick and Alex walked over to help them with the food.

"Finally." Alex grinned and pulled Claire for a quick kiss, which soon became more and more passionate.

"Get a room!" Nick elbowed his brother and everyone started laughing.

"What can I say, I missed my lady." Alex said with a smile and winked at Claire.

"So now I'm your lady now, huh?" Claire grinned as well.

"Now and forever." he replied and kissed her again. "You have no choice, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." she answered and pulled Alex for a big hug. This time nobody was making any stupid comments, they were just looking at Alex and Claire, amazed at how much in love they were. It's not very often that a love like that blooms, especially if it needs that many years to bloom.

"OK, let's get all that stuff out of the car." Alex said as he walked over to the back of the ute. "Did you buy the whole store?" he said laughing as he realized that there is hardly no space left.

"There's nothing that you guys didn't ask for." Tess said with a smile. Alex and Nick helped her unpack the things and put everything on the tables.

"By the way, where is my other lady?" Alex asked after a while as he opened the back door and kissed BOM on the forehead. "There she is!" he smiled as he started to unbuckle her. "My beautiful beautiful baby girl." he took her out of the car and kissed her again. "I missed you two, you know? Both you and your mommy." he was so consumed by Charlotte and her efforts to tell him something that he didn't notice the way Claire was looking at him. Just when she thought she couldn't love him more... Nothing made her happier than seeing Alex and BOM like that. He might not be her biological father, but she knew this was the best father this girl could ever ask for.

"What are you grinning about?" Tess asked when she saw the expression on Claire's face, but it didn't take her long to realize what Claire was looking at. "He's so great with her."

"He is, isn't he?" Claire smiled. "It's amazing how the two of them bonded. It's like he really is her father."

"That's because he is." Tess insisted. "You said it yourself, he's gonna be her father in all the ways that count."

"Yeah, I know." Claire sighed happily as he saw Alex dancing with little Charlotte.

"You guys are gonna be so happy." Tess said excitedly. "I'm so glad everything worked out the way it did."

"Yeah, me too." Claire answered and added as she saw Nick already pouring the champagne into the glasses. "Come on, before they drink it all." she laughed and they headed towards the tables where everybody else was. Nick handed them their glasses.

"There you go ladies."

"Thank you." they replied almost simultaneously and took their glasses.

Suddenly everyone heard Jodi's voice. "Speech!" she shouted and looked meaningfully at Claire.

"Oh come on, Jodes. You want a speech, you make one yourself." Claire tried to get away with it, but it seemed like other people liked Jodi's idea.

"Just a couple words before we drink a toast." Meg insistead. "We all know you can do it."

"Oh man." Claire sighed as she turned around a bit so that she was now facing everyone. "Are you sure you wanna hear it?"

"Absolutely!" Alex agreed and looked at Charlotte. "Isn't that right, BOM?" Charlotte made a weird sound. "See? She wants to hear your speech too."

"OK, but can we not call it a speech? It makes me nervous." she said and they all laughed. "Well OK, I guess that since I'm hosting this party, I can say a few words." she tool a deep breath. "I gotta say that this cancer scare really terrified me. I hated the idea that my sister could be taken away from me so soon after I got her back. But fortunately everything turned out OK and she's here with us and will be for a long time." Claire smiled and looked at Tess, who was already getting all teary-eyed. "I cannot tell you how relieved and happy that makes me. Because honestly, I cannot imagine this place without her anymore." she added and realized that Tess was almost crying.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry." she said concerned.

"That's OK." Tess replied. "Those are happy tears."

"Good." Claire smiled and continued. "As you know, I have another reason to celebrate." she paused and looked at Alex holding little Charlotte. "I finally found the man of my dreams and he's gonna be with me day and night from now on. I don't know how he's gonna survive in this house full of women though."

"Oh I'll find a way." Alex interrupted her and said looking lovingly at her and BOM. For a second again everyone just stopped to admire the beautiful love between Claire and Alex.

"Well anyway." she said after a moment. "I'm really grateful to God that he let me realize how much I love Alex and that he feels the same way."

"You bet I do!" he shouted and everyone started laughing. Alex walked up to Claire and handed BOM to her, kissing the girl on the forehead and her mommy on the lips.

"Awwww!" that was just about the only sound that Jodi could make at that particular moment. She looked at her mother on her left. Meg was already teary-eyed and didn't even try to hide it.

"They look so beautiful together." she whispered with a huge grin on her face. "I'm so happy for both of them."

"I know, me too." Jodi replied and looked over to Alex, Claire and Charlotte again. That was definitely one happy family.

"OK, that definitely calls for a toast." Nick suddenly suggested and lifted his glass. "Cheers!" he said happily and everybody followed.

Soon the party was in full swing and Drovers really had not seen that many happy people in a long time. They all had so many reasons to celebrate and they were so excited to look around and see all their friends so content. This was definitely one of the happiest days on Drovers Run.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

Later that night when all the guests had already gone, Alex and Claire were sitting on the Drovers porch, still sipping champagne and eating leftover cake that Meg had baked. Claire was sitting on Alex's knees and BOM was sleeping on a chair next to them. 

"So, did you have a good time?" Alex asked pulling her for a kiss.

"I had a blast." she said grinning in between kissing him. "That was a great day and a wonderful party."

"And we have even more wonderful life ahead of us." Alex smiled and kissed her again.

"Did I tell you that I love you?" Claire grinned as she nestled into his arms looking at her beautiful baby daughter.

"I vaguely remember, so you might wanna try again." he joked.

"Well I love you." she repeated. "I really really do."

"And I really really love you too." he replied kissing the top of her head. "And I love her." he added, pointing at Charlotte. "She's just about the most perfect baby."

"She is, isn't she?" Claire smiled looking at her daughter lovingly.

"Yeah." Alex sighed. "And there is no wonder since she's taking after you."

"Well look at you, Mr. Compliment." Claire laughed.

"I can't help it." Alex laughed back. "You put a spell on me, woman."

"I did, didn't I?" she turned around and kissed him on the lips. "I tend to have that effect on men."

"I'd better be the only man you're having that effect on." he looked at her questioningly.

"Don't worry, you're in the top 5." she answered jokingly and couldn't help but laugh when she saw the expression on his face. "You look so cute when you're jealous." she kissed him on the cheek.

"Me, jealous?" he pretended to be offended. "You must be confusing me with someone else." he added, but he knew exactly that he had absolutely no reason to be jealous. He knew that the only person Claire might love more than him was BOM.

"I'm so tired." Claire said after a moment, trying to stretch her legs. "I think I'm gonna go to bed. Care to join me?" she winked at Alex.

"Always." he smiled and they both got up. Claire took Charlotte and they went upstairs. When they approached the bedroom doors, Alex began getting more and more nervous. He knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for his entire life, even if he wasn't always aware of it.

He pushed the door open for Claire and Charlotte. His heart started pounding like crazy. He knew that the moment was going to come any minute, but truth be told he had no idea what he was going to say or how he was going to ask her, the only thing he knew was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Claire.

Claire entered the bedroom, but she was too focused on Charlotte to notice the ring on the bed. She put Charlotte in the crib and turned to Alex, still not noticing the ring. Alex was a nervous wreck, and Claire would have to be blind not to notice.

"Alex, is everything OK?" she asked him, a little worried.

"Yeah, everything's fine. It's just that..." he started explaining as his eyes shifted to the ring. Claire immediately picked up on that and turned around. Alex knew that she was gonna see the ring now, so he took a deep breath. "It's showtime." he thought to himself, as he watched closely what Claire's reaction to the ring would be.

For a moment she stared at the ring, as if not exactly sure if it really was there. After a while, she walked up to the bed and took the ring in her hand, still not sure if she was not imagining things. When she opened the box and realized it wasn't her imagination and the ring really was there, she turned to Alex, with her heart beating as strong as it had ever beaten.

"When you said you had a present for me, I was thinking more like a new saddle..." she said laughing in between deep breaths. "Is this what I think it is?" she asked trying to make sure she was understanding everything right. "Are you asking me to..." she started, but she didn't have to finish. The expression on Alex's face said everything. "I'll be damned!" she laughed again, but tears started rolling down her cheeks. Never had she imagined Alex Ryan proposing, let alone to her. This seemed like some kind of alternate universe. But she liked this universe.

Alex finally took a step closer to her. "We've wasted so much time, Claire. If only we hadn't been blind all those years, maybe things would have been different. Although right now it doesn't really matter, because we can't change the past. But we can change the future and I wanna keep changing it with you. Ever since Melbourne, there is nothing that I have ever been more sure in my life than the fact that I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. Whatever life wants to throw at us, I don't care, because I know that you and I together Claire are unbeatable." he stopped for a moment and studied Claire's face for a moment. She seemed frozen in the moment, listening intently to everything that he was saying. She couldn't stop the tears. Alex took the ring from her hand and got down on one knee. "So... Claire Louise McLeod, will you do me the honor and..."

"YES!" she cried happily, tears still rolling on her face. She realized that she probably had never let Alex see that many of her tears, but it didn't matter. She was happy and those were tears of joy.

"But you didn't even let me ask the question." he pretended to be indignant. "What if I wanted to ask you if you want to become a man?"

"For you everything, my love." she joked.

"So yes?" he asked more seriously and looked into her eyes.

"Of course." she answered. "I didn't waste that much time on you not to have something from it." she grinned.

"You are starting to scare me." he laughed.

"Good, that's the way it's supposed to be." she replied as Alex finally took her hand in his. Her entire body shivered.

"Let's make it official." he smiled and put the ring on her finger. She smiled back at him as he finally stood up and took her in his arms.

"I love you." she whispered in his ear.

"I love you to, future Mrs. Ryan." he kissed her on the lips.

"Wait, I'm not taking your name. I'm a McLeod!" she said firmly, but with a laugh.

"We'll talk about it later. What matters is that you will be my wife and you can finally start cooking for me and making my laundry." he winked at her as he started kissing her neck and lead her onto the bed.

"I wouldn't be caught dead doing your laundry, Ryan." she retaliated as Alex continued to kiss her.

"Well, you never thought you'd see the day I proposed to someone, and yet here we are." he laughed.

"And that was the one time I was wrong." she smiled and started kissing him back. The fact that Alex Ryan actually made a marriage proposal hadn't really sunk in yet. Let alone the fact that she was the one he asked to be his wife. Talk about some weird, twisted universe...


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

The next day Claire with the strangest feeling. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that she had never been happier in her entire life. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her finger with the ring on it.

"So it wasn't a dream." she thought to herself and looked at Alex who was still sleeping on the other side of the bed. She didn't want to wake him, but she needed to share the happy news with someone, so she got out of bed and walked over to Charlotte's crib. she was starting to stir.

"Hey angel." she whispered as she took her daughter into her arms and sat on the chair. "Mommy has to show you something." Claire smiled and proudly showed her ring to Charlotte. She immediately got interested and started playing with it. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she continued. "Mommy got it from Alex and she's gonna be his wife. Mommy's getting married." she sighed. "Oh BOM, you have no idea how happy I am. Alex loves us and we're gonna have a wonderful life with him."

"That you will." Claire suddenly heard Alex's voice behind her and turned around.

"Hey you." she smiled and looked lovingly at him. "I thought you were gonna sleep for hours. I hope I didn't wake you."

"Oh no, you didn't. My subconscious woke me up, because it knew that I didn't want to be asleep instead of having a beautiful morning with my new fiance."

"Since when are you so romantic?" Claire laughed as she got into bed with BOM still in her arms.

"Well, what can be better than being in bed with two women that I love the most in the whole wide world." he added as he kissed Claire's lips and Charlotte's forehead. You two are my life now." he let Claire nestle into his arms and started talking to Charlotte. "I'm gonna take care of you and mommy now. We are gonna have so much fun. I'm gonna teach you and your brothers how to ride a horse and..

"Did I just hear you say brothers?" Claire almost choked.

"Could be sisters, I don't care. But we can't let BOM grow up without any siblings, now can we?" he grinned.

"Let's leave this discussion for later, shall we?"

"What's to discuss?"

"Trust me, a lot. Unless you wanna carry the child. In that case, by my guest." Alex's face was now full of grimace. "I didn't think so. So let's say we'll think ahout it later."

"OK, but you need to know that I'm planning an entire soccer team here, so..."

"I said later." she pressed her hand on his lips and cut him short.

"OK, but I won't wait forever, you know." he smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"Yeah, I know." she smiled. "Now please let me go, because I need to go somewhere."

"And where would that be?" he asked, curius.

"You don't have to know everything about me, now do you?" she teased. "I'll be right back." she promised as she got out of bed.

"We're not going anywhere." he smiled and Claire left the room. Originally she was just gonna go to the bathroom, but she heard a commotion in the kitched, so she decided to check it out. When she got downstairs, she saw Tess sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.

"You're an awfully morning person today." she joked and startled Tess a little bit.

"Oh hey." she smiled. "I thought everybody was still asleep."

"So did I."

"I just couldn't sleep." Tess admitted. "I guess all the emotions from yesterday still haven't left me.' she sighed.

"I know you've had a lot on your mind recently, but if you're ready for some more emotions, I've got a little something to show you." she grinned.

"Yeah, what?" she asked and Claire stretched out her hand to show Tess the ring. "Oh My God!" Tess jumped. "Is this what I think it is?"

"It very much is." Claire said happily.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I think I need to sit down." Tess was totally freaking out.

"You ARE sitting down." Claire reminder her.

"Right." sha laughed. "So I guess I need to stand up." she did just that and went over to Claire to hug her. "When did this happen?"

"Yesterday after the party." Claire was beaming.

"Oh I'm so happy for you." Tess hugged her sister again. "This is so wonderful. I mean I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but I guess it happened sooner." Tess laughed. "Congratulations sis."

"Thanks." Claire replied and Tess finally let go of her. "OK, I gotta go. I promised Alex I won't be long."

"Yes, yes, go to your future husband." Tess winked and with that Claire was gone. She even forgot to go to the bathroom because of all the excitement. When she entered the bedroom, Alex was teaching BOM how to ride a horse using his leg as a saddle.

"Oh my God, you two are just two cute together." Claire laughed and jumped into bed with her little angel and her big angel.

"I know, we can't help it." Alex grinned. Claire rested her head on Alex's shoulder and continued watching him playing with BOM.

"You think all our mornings will be like this?" she asked hopeful.

"Like this or even better." he replied sure of himself. "Right BOM?" he turned to Charlotte who had a huge smile on her face. "See? She agrees with me."

"I can see that." she kissed BOM on the forehead and suddenly they heard a rambling noise on the stairs. Two seconds didn't even pass when Meg and Jodi barged into the bedroom.

"I wanna see the ring! Let me see the ring!" Jodi exclaimed happily as she ran towards the bed.

"And good morning to you too." Claire said with a happy tone in her voice as she showed Jodi the ring.

"Oh it's beautiful." Jodi almost cried.

"Excuse me?" Alex tried to pretend to be speaking in a serious tone. "Can a guy get ANY privacy in this house?"

"You'll have plenty of privacy later, but now I wanna look at the ring." Jodi replied with a huge smile on her face and Alex just sighed.

"Women." he whispered to Charlotte.

"OK, enough of the watching." Claire insisted and made Jodi let go of her hand. "My hand hurts." they both laughed. "Oh and by the way, how did you know?" she didn't really gave to wait for an answer as she saw Tess at the door. "I shoula have known." she sighed.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." Tess screamed. "I was so ecxited."

"Well that's certainly some news." Meg said and sat on the bed next to Jodi to give Claire a hug. "I'm so happy for you, Claire. You deserve all the happiness."

"Thanks Meg."

"So how did he propose?" Jodi started inquiring, but was cut short by Alex.

"HE is still in the room." Alex noted. "So can you please do the girl talk later?" he asked and everyone started laughing.

"Alright, we'll go." Tess agreed. "But we wanna hear everything later."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you everything." she promised and added. "Well not EVERYTHING." she looked meaningfully at Alex.

"Gee, I think I'm blushing." he joked as he waved Tess, Jodi and Meg goodbye. When they left the room and closed the door, Claire looked at Alex and smiled.

"Now that was quite a morning, huh?" she said with a laugh.

"I'd say." he agreed and put his arm around her. Claire once again laughed and started thinking about how happy she had been ever since she got together with Alex. He made her laugh, he made her cry. He was everything she ever wanted in a man and she was amazed at why it took her so long to find that out. But it didn't really matter, what mattered was that they were together and that they were getting married. Charlotte would finally have the kind of father she deserves - one that loves her and one who will protect her no matter what. Claire knew that life wasn't always gonna be a fairytale, that real life can get tough sometimes, but she was prepared to face the world with Alex by her side.

THE END


End file.
